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Chapter 5

1

Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us, look, and see our disgrace:

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Our inherited lands have been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners.

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We have become orphans, fatherless; widowed are our mothers.

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The water we drink we must buy, for our own wood we must pay.

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On our necks is the yoke of those who drive us; we are worn out, but allowed no rest.

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¹ To Egypt we submitted, and to Assyria, to fill our need of bread.

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² Our fathers, who sinned, are no more; but we bear their guilt.

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³ Slaves rule over us; there is no one to rescue us from their hands.

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At the peril of our lives we bring in our sustenance, in the face of the desert heat;

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Our skin is shriveled up, as though by a furnace, with the searing blasts of famine.

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The wives in Zion were ravished by the enemy, the maidens in the cities of Judah;

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Princes were gibbeted by them, elders shown no respect.

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The youths carry the millstones, boys stagger under their loads of wood;

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⁴ The old men have abandoned the gate, the young men their music.

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The joy of our hearts has ceased, our dance has turned into mourning;

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The garlands have fallen from our heads: woe to us, for we have sinned!

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Over this our hearts are sick, at this our eyes grow dim:

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That Mount Zion should be desolate, with jackals roaming there!

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You, O LORD, are enthroned forever; your throne stands from age to age.

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Why, then, should you forget us, abandon us so long a time?

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Lead us back to you, O LORD, that we may be restored: give us anew such days as we had of old.

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For now you have indeed rejected us, and in full measure turned your wrath against us.